Spacers for use in masonry wall

ABSTRACT

A spacer for use in constructing masonry walls of brick, block or cut stone and the like has two parallel rows of flexible beads that are connected to one another by filaments. The beads are spaced apart from one another so that when one course of bricks or the like has been laid, the spacer can be placed on top of that course so that there are four beads on top of each brick and the like, two beads in each row. The beads have a height that is slightly less than a level of fresh mortar to be placed and the spacer remains in the wall when construction is completed.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

This invention relates to a spacer for use in constructing masonry wallsusing rectangular units such as bricks, blocks, cut stone and the like,the spacer having two rows of beads that are spaced apart from oneanother and interconnected by filaments. This invention further relatesto a method of construction of a masonry wall and to a spacer andmasonry wall in combination. The spacer remains in the wall whenconstruction is completed.

2. Description of the Prior Art

It is known to use tools to assist in spacing bricks, blocks and thelike a fixed distance apart from one another while laying a subsequentcourse upon a previously laid course. These spacers can be described astools that are used to gauge a particular thickness for the mortar andare then removed.

The Bartram U.S. Pat. No. 2,679,745, issued on Jun. 1, 1954, describes abrick or block jointer that is used to define the joint space betweensuccessive bricks. The House U.S. Pat. No. 3,174,227 issued on Mar. 23,1965, describes a gauge that is located on a trowel as well as aseparate gauge for measuring mortar thickness. The Glaze U.S. Pat. No.4,408,398 issued on Oct. 11, 1983, describes a gage for laying blockswhere the gage is inserted before the mortar is laid in the horizontaland vertical planes and then removed after the new block has been placedin position. The holes left in the mortar from the removal of the gageare subsequently filled. The Barnett U.S. Pat. No. 5,095,633, issued onMar. 17, 1992, describes a masonry tool or gauge for laying a blockstructure, which automatically determines the spacing based on the firstor model course. Generally, previous devices or tools that have beenused for spacing bricks and the like are removed after the spacingexercise has been completed.

None of the previous tools has gained wide spread acceptance in theconstruction industry and today masonry walls are usually laid withoutthe use of spacers of any kind. The laying of masonry walls requires asignificant degree of skill as the bricks or blocks must be uniformlyplaced and must be level. Errors made on lower courses become moresignificant on subsequent courses because of the cumulative effect andgenerally a high degree of skill and experience is required to properlyconstruct a masonry wall. Over the last several years, new constructionhas been proceeding at a rapid pace and there has been a shortage ofbricklayers in many areas. In these situations, the masonry portion ofthe construction often falls behind other portions and causes delay incompletion of the structure. Sometimes, new home owners have occupiedhouses even though the exterior walls have not been completed.

The spacing tools that have been proposed previously require asignificant level of skill in order to use them properly. Also, theprevious spacing tools often slow down, rather than speed up, theconstructions of the wall, thereby making the wall even more expensiveto complete.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

It is an object of the present invention to provide spacers for use in amasonry wall where the spacers are left in the wall following completionof construction and result in the wall being constructed quickly andaccurately by tradesman who are relatively unskilled. It is a furtherobject of the present invention to provide spacers that are inexpensiveand more than justify their costs by the speed, accuracy and cost ofconstruction that results from their use.

A spacer is used in constructing masonry walls made of rectangular unitswhere each unit has an identical height and footprint. The units areplaced in successive horizontal courses to form a completed wall. Thespacer has a plurality of beads that are spaced apart from one another,the beads being interconnected by filaments. The beads are arranged onan installed course of units to assist in supporting and placing asubsequent course of units to be laid on top of the installed course ofunits. There are no beads located on a joint. The beads have a heightthat is slightly less than the fresh mortar to be placed on theinstalled course of units. The beads are somewhat flexible and provide aguide to the thickness of mortar, the spacer remaining in the wall afterconstruction.

A spacer as used in constructing masonry walls of rectangular units. Thespacer has two rows of beads that are spaced apart from one another, thebeads being interconnected by filaments. The spacer has a width that isnarrower than a width of the unit. The beads are arranged so that whenthe spacer is properly placed on top of a course of units, there arefour beads on top of each unit. Two beads of the four beads are in eachrow. The beads are not located directly above or below a mortar joint.The beads have a height that is less than a thickness of fresh mortar tobe placed on the units. The beads are somewhat flexible and the spacerremains in the wall after construction.

A spacer and masonry wall in combination comprises a wall of rectangularunits and a spacer having two rows of beads that are spaced apart fromone another. The beads are interconnected by filaments and the spacerhas a width that is narrower than a width of the unit. The beads arearranged so that when the spacer is properly placed on top of a courseof units, there are four beads on top of each unit, two of the fourbeads being in each row. The beads are not located directly above ordirectly beneath a mortar joint and the spacer remains in the completedwall. The beads have a height that does not exceed a thickness of thecured mortar placed on the units.

A method of constructing masonry walls of rectangular units where theunits each have an identical height and footprint comprises using aspacer to assist in applying mortar of uniform thickness from one courseof units to a successive course of units, choosing a spacer ofappropriate size for the units that are to be laid. The spacer having aplurality of beads that are interconnected by filaments, the beads beingsomewhat flexible, the spacer being narrower than the units, after afirst course of units is laid placing the spacer on top of the firstcourse over several units as desired so that there are beads on top ofeach unit, applying mortar to a top of the course to embed the spacerincluding the beads in the mortar, placing a unit for the successivecourse as the mortar is applied, continuing to apply mortar and placingunits for the successive course, placing the units substantiallyparallel to a top of the beads, adding more spacers as required,completing each course as desired and repeating the method for eachsubsequent course to form a wall, leaving the spacer in the wall.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

In FIG. 1 there is shown a top view of a length of spacer;

In FIG. 2 there is shown a top view of a further embodiment of a lengthspacer;

In FIG. 3, there is shown a schematic side view of part of a brick wallincluding spacers;

In FIG. 4, there is shown a schematic side view of part of a block wallincluding spacers;

In FIG. 5, there is shown a top view of an L-shaped wall;

In FIG. 6, there is shown a perspective view showing spacers on an uppercourse of a brick wall;

In FIG. 7, there is shown a top view of an L-shaped wall having spacerstherein; and

In FIG. 8, there is shown a partial perspective view of a cement blockwall having spacers on an upper course.

In FIG. 1, a spacer has a plurality of beads 1 arranged in two parallelrows. The beads in the same row are separated by flexible filaments 2.The beads in different rows are separated by filaments 3. While thefilaments 2 are flexible to allow the spacers to be rolled into a smallpackage, the filaments 3 are preferably stiffer than the filaments 2 andare still more preferably rigid to maintain the spacing between the tworows. The spacer in FIG. 1 is sized for use on a brick wall.

In FIG. 2, there is shown a spacer that is designed for use on a cementblock wall. It can be seen that the beads 1 shown in FIG. 2 are locatedfurther apart from one another than the beads of FIG. 1. The samereference numerals are used in FIG. 2 to describe those components thatare similar to the components of FIG. 1. In FIG. 3, the placement of thespacer in a wall made of bricks 5 is shown. It can be seen that themortar 4 between the two courses of bricks shown has a thicknessapproximately equal to the height of the beads 1. Similarly in FIG. 4,there is shown a schematic side view of a cement block wall having twocourses of cement blocks 6 that are separated by spacers. The mortar 4between the two courses again has a thickness that is approximatelyequal to a height of the beads 1. When placing the fresh mortar on topof the previous course of bricks, blocks, cut stones and the like, themortar is placed at a thickness that preferably is slightly higher thanthe height of the beads and embeds the spacer entirely in the mortar.Then, when the next rectangular unit (i.e. brick, block, cut stone andthe like) is placed on the previous course, it is tapped into a levelposition. The mortar will shrink as it dries and the rectangular unitwill be at approximately the same level as the height of one of thebeads above the previous course.

In FIGS. 5 and 6, there are two sets of spacers used on an L-shapedbrick wall. It can be seen that generally, there are four beads on eachbrick 5. However, where a half a brick is used in the corner as shown inFIG. 5, there are only two beads on the half brick. When a short brickis used, it is fairly easy to determine the level of mortar from theguidance provided from only two beads as the length of the half brick isvery short. In FIG. 6, the corner brick has two beads from one spacer,one being in a front row and one being in a back row and two beads fromthe other spacer. On the particular corner brick shown, there are threebeads along what can be considered to be the back row and only one beadon what can be considered to be the front row. The spacers could beplaced differently in FIG. 6 by cutting the spacer on the left hand sideof the drawing so that the spacer does not extend onto the corner brick.Then, the spacer on the right hand side of the drawing can also be cutand moved so that the four beads that are on the second brick from thecorner are moved onto the corner brick. The spacer is manufactured incontinuous lengths of various distances and can simply be unrolled as itis placed onto the top of a previous course of rectangular units. Thespacer can be cut at any convenient length by a user. The same referencenumerals are used in FIG. 5 and 6 as those used in FIGS. 1 and 3 for thecomponents that are identical.

In FIGS. 7 and 8, the arrangement of spacers on a wall of cement blocks6 is shown. The same reference numerals are used in FIGS. 7 and 8 asthose used in FIGS. 2 and 4 to describe those components that areidentical.

Preferably, the spacer is formed from one material and various materialswill be suitable for the material of the spacer. Alternatively, thefilaments can be made from a different material than the beads and as afurther alternative, the filaments in the same row can be made from adifferent material than the filaments that extend between the two rows.The material for the beads should be somewhat flexible so that the beadwill compress slightly when a rectangular unit is placed above it.Plastic, rubber, neoprene, polyethylene, polypropylene and nylon (atrademark) are considered to be suitable materials. Neoprene is apreferred material. By way of example, the filaments could be formed ofnylon and the beads could be formed from a flexible plastic material.

The spacer is relatively inexpensive and, if properly used, can easilypay for itself. The spacer is left in place after construction iscompleted. It is suggested that the spacer not be used when the firstcourse of rectangular units are laid. The first course is preferablylaid by a skilled craftsman and the spacer is then used by a relativelyunskilled craftsman for each subsequent course. In this way, a team canbe formed of one skilled bricklayer and several unskilled bricklayers,whereby the skilled bricklayer starts the masonry wall by laying thefirst course. Members of the team with lesser skills are then employedto use the spacers of the present invention to lay the subsequentcourses. In this way, a team, with only one skilled bricklayer cancomplete several walls relatively quickly. The spacers can be placed inposition fairly rapidly and can be cut to any desired length. Thespacers are lightweight and do not take a great deal of space whenstored or shipped before use. When the spacers are used, a wall can beconstructed much more quickly and accurately largely by relativelyunskilled craftsman. Further, the spacers can improve the efficiency andaccuracy of a skilled craftsman as well.

1. A spacer for use in constructing masonry walls of rectangular units,said spacer having two rows of beads that are spaced apart from oneanother, said beads being interconnected by filaments, said spacerhaving a width that is narrower than a width of said unit, said beadsbeing arranged so that when said spacer is properly placed on top of acourse of units, there are four beads on top of each unit, two beads ofsaid four beads being in each-row, said beads not being located directlyabove a mortar joint of said course of units or directly beneath amortar joint of a next course of units to be placed, said beads having aheight that is less than a thickness of fresh mortar to be placed onsaid units, said beads being somewhat flexible, said spacer remaining insaid wall after construction.
 2. A spacer for use in constructingmasonry walls made of rectangular units where each unit has an identicalheight and footprint, said units being placed in successive horizontalcourses to form a completed wall, said spacer having a plurality ofbeads that are spaced apart from one another, said beads beinginterconnected by filaments, said beads being arranged on an installedcourse of units to assist in supporting and spacing a succeeding courseof units to be laid on a top of said installed course of units, therebeing no beads located at a joint, said beads having a height that isslightly less than the thickness of fresh mortar to be placed on saidinstalled course of units, said beads being somewhat flexible andproviding a guide to said thickness of mortar, said spacer remaining insaid wall after construction.
 3. A spacer as claimed in any one ofclaims 1 or 2 wherein said spacer is long enough to extend over severalunits.
 4. A spacer as claimed in any one of claims 1 or 2 said spacer islong enough to extend over a previously laid course of units.
 5. Aspacer as claimed in any one of claims 1 or 2 wherein said spacer has acontinuous length relative to the units on which the spacer is to beplaced, said spacer being severable to create a particular length.
 6. Aspacer as claimed in claim 2 wherein there are two rows of beads, saidrows being parallel to one another.
 7. A spacer as claimed in any one ofclaims 1 or 2 wherein said spacer has two parallel rows.
 8. A spacer asclaimed in any one of claims 1 or 2 wherein said beads are arranged in afront row corresponding to said beads in a back row, said beads in saidfront row being located in alignment with said beads in said back row.9. A spacer as claimed in any one of claims 1 or 2 wherein said spacerhas segments which are connected to one another, each segment havingfour beads, two in a front row and two in a back row with said filamentsextending between said beads to form a rectangular shape, theregenerally being one segment on top of each unit of a previous course.10. A spacer as claimed in any one of claims 1 or 2 wherein said beadsare located so as not to contact any joints of a previously laid courseor of a successively laid course of said units.
 11. A spacer as claimedin any one of claims 1 or 2 wherein said spacer is formed in continuouslengths to extend over several units from material selected from thegroup of plastic, rubber, neoprene, polyethylene and polypropylene. 12.A spacer as claimed in any one of claims 1 or 2 wherein said spacer isformed from one material.
 13. A spacer as claimed in any one of claims 1or 2 wherein said beads and said filaments are made from differentmaterial.
 14. A spacer as claimed in any one of claims 1 or 2 whereinsaid beads are arranged in a front row corresponding to said beads in aback row, said filaments that connect said beads and said front row tosaid beads in said back row being stiffer than said filaments connectingsaid beads in the same row.
 15. A spacer and masonry wall incombination, said combination comprising the masonry wall of rectangularunits, said spacer having two rows of beads that are spaced apart fromone another, said beads being interconnected by filaments, said spacerhaving a width that is narrower than a width of said unit, said beadsbeing arranged so that when a spacer is placed on top of a course ofunits, there are four beads on top of each unit, two beads of said fourbeads being in each row, said spacer remaining in said wall aftercompletion, said beads not being located directly above or directlybeneath a mortar joint, said beads having a height that does not exceeda thickness of cured mortar between said units, said beads beingsomewhat flexible.
 16. A spacer and masonry wall in combination asclaimed in claim 15 wherein each unit has an identical height andfootprint.
 17. A spacer and masonry wall in combination as claimed inany one of claims 15 or 16 wherein said spacer is long enough to extendover several units.
 18. A method of constructing masonry walls ofrectangular units, said units each having an identical height andfootprint, said method comprising using a spacer to assist in applyingmortar of uniform thickness from one course of units to a successivecourse of units, choosing a spacer of appropriate size for the unitsthat are to be laid, said spacer having a plurality of beads that areinterconnected by filaments, said beads being somewhat flexible saidspacer being narrower than said units, after a first course of units islaid placing said spacer on top of said first course over several unitsas desired so that there are four beads on top of each unit, applyingmortar to a top of said course embed said spacer including said beads insaid mortar, placing a unit for a successive course as said mortar isapplied, continuing to apply mortar and placing units for saidsuccessive course, placing said units substantially parallel to a top ofsaid beads adding more spacers as required, completing each course asdesired and repeating said method for each subsequent course to form awall, leaving said spacer in said wall.